Matternet explores platform that could allow aerial delivery of medical devices, as well as contain chemical sensors

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Menlo Park Fire Protection District personnel use a DJI drone during a burn training exercise. The drones, through a 2-year-old partnership with DJI, a Chinese drone manufacturer, provide thermal imaging. The district has now partnered with Matternet, a Menlo Park-based drone company, on additional drone technology. (Menlo Park Fire Protection District)

The Menlo Park Fire Protection District’s top official wants it to lead the pack in using drones for emergency operations.

“I want this agency to be the lead agency in the United States in the terms of applying new technology,” district board President Peter Carpenter said at Tuesday’s board meeting. “We could be the fire agency that looked at UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and gave them a seal of approval. What’s exciting about that is whoever’s first in that business generally dominates. Second and third entries in certifications don’t do generally well.”

Carpenter was discussing a partnership the board unanimously approved between the district and Matternet, a Menlo Park-based startup that develops drones to deliver lightweight goods, primarily medical items sent from one medical facility to another. The partnership is to explore ways Matternet — and other partners not yet identified — could help build a platform for the district to aerially deliver items such as defibrillators, life vests or medicine during emergencies.

The partnership could lead to sharing intellectual property, with Matternet in charge of any commercialization that results. Matternet CEO Andreas Raptopoulos said the company would not charge the district for its expertise. A formal and legally binding agreement could come later this year if the partnership turns out to be financially feasible, he said.

Matternet makes autonomous vehicles that don’t require pilots; the devices have fail safes that knock them out of commission if there is a problem, he said.

“The focus is on whether there is a fit … our expertise is how can we get something via air from point A to B in our 12-mile range,” Raptopoulos said, adding this is a first-of-its-kind partnership for the 6-year-old firm. “We expect there is value here but we haven’t seen the details.

“We are strongly motivated by public benefits. … The opportunity to try to contribute to (the fire district) is motivation itself.”

The benefit to the district is that a multipurpose drone could help deliver needed supplies when street traffic is gridlocked, particularly along Willow Road and the Dumbarton Bridge. The district has a 2-year-old partnership with DJI, a Chinese drone manufacturer, but that involves testing of its current models, not building a one-of-a-kind platform.

“We’re not going to have flying fire trucks, but the fact is we are going to have elements of our agency which are, in fact, air mobile and, in my opinion, it’s going to be a very important component of us dealing with congestion,” Carpenter said.

A possible outcome floated at the meeting was to add Caltrans as a partner and have it install platforms above every emergency access door on Highway 101 within the district’s boundaries. Drones with cameras could periodically rest atop the platforms and assess traffic collisions.

Another possibility is launching drones from a moving vehicle that could land back inside a moving vehicle, an application fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman said Matternet is developing.

Board member Chuck Bernstein said he liked the camera idea, but wants to make sure the partnership explores safety concerns.

“I’m also interested in employee safety and the ability to sense structural failure and hot spots and toxic materials … where we can send in basically a robotic thing rather than a human being,” he said. “To me, that’s the thing that will save lives and save illness.”

Another advantage, Schapelhouman said, is that instead of selling the district a product, Matternet is trying to help it create a platform in which drones could carry six or seven types of packages.

“That’s the benefit,” he said, suggesting that a seller would want to maximize profits by having the drone just perform one task.

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